Love Me Do tells the story of the relationship between driven London banker Antonia (Rebecca Calder) and burgeoning actor Max (Jack Gordon). As the relationship develops, darkness and manipulation enter the fray, but who is manipulating whom and how far will the couple take things…
Love Me Do is a study into the darker side of human nature. Both our leads have questionable morals and they make several despicable decisions, and yet the audience is still drawn to them. They are our protagonists and antagonists rolled into one, something that places the viewer in a moral quandary. Over the run time you connect with the couple and by the end you realise that, much like Max, you’ve been expertly manipulated to agree with their devious deed.
It has a brilliant story that concertinas the life of a relationship into relatively short running time. A terrific two-hander, Love Me Do is a story that could easily be told on stage. It definitely felt like a stage play captured on film, there are lots of moments of quiet which you don’t get in film these days. It’s a tale that commands attention and engagement. Much like all the great stage plays, it’s a narrative that encourages debate. Were this to be on stage though, you would lose the intimate and intricate camera work that help place you closer to couple. By committing this to celluloid we’re offered a front seat to the development, decline and eventual deviancy.
At the heart of the film, of course, are couple Max and Antonia. On paper the pairing of an aspiring actor and a high-powered banker shouldn’t work, and yet they do. The dynamic between Gordon and Calder is breathtakingly realistic. It’s not just that the pair have chemistry, it’s more the under-current of tension that they display that makes them tangible. As much as films may try and tell us otherwise, being in a couple can be hard at times. Their insistence to persevere as one offers a strange sense of hope to those working their way through difficult times. Though both actors are relatively unknown, both display a huge amount of natural talent and surely it won’t be much longer until they are household names.
Love Me Do is a strong, bold and stripped-back sophomore offering from director Martin Stitt. Featuring a brilliant dynamic between the talented leads, Love Me Do is a film that handles darkness well, with an ending that leaves you with one heck of a moral conflict.
Love Me Do arrives on digital platforms from Monday 14th November, 2016.
